


When in Paris

by katwriting



Series: When in Paris [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, First Date, Fluff, I Tried, M/M, Romance, first date in Paris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 13:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9659237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katwriting/pseuds/katwriting
Summary: Magnus takes Alec on that first date and ends up battling some of the demons from his past.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, I know the actual Malec first date takes place in the Hunter's Moon...but I started writing this a few weeks ago when we didn't know that yet, so I went for something different. Hope you like it anyways.
> 
> Also, this is the first fanfic I published in years, and English is not my first language, so sorry in advance if there are any weird grammar/syntax mistakes :)
> 
> This fic was also posted on my tumblr: katwriting

Magnus blamed it all on Alec. Stupid shadowhunter. Stupid dark hair, stupid brown eyes, stupid cute smile. If it weren’t for all of those things, Magnus would never have been daydreaming and therefore distracted enough to completely mess up his eyeliner.

  _Stupid shadowhunter,_ he thought again as he grabbed a make-up wipe to remove the smudged black liner from his face and immediately sighed. Now he had to start all over again.

 Sure, he could use his magic to get his make-up done. But if Magnus Bane enjoyed one thing, it was getting ready. And for his first date with Alec, he had to make sure he looked amazing. So his magic just did not quite cut it today. Besides, he’d probably have to use his magic later on anyway - redoing his make-up would take up a significant amount of time he’d calculated in for doing his hair. And Alec would be here within the next half hour.  

_

 “Trust me, you’re going to look good in this.”

“You sure?

“Alec, just because I picked this out doesn’t mean it’s totally unwearable. If this were black, you would have picked it yourself out without a second thought. You’ll be fine. Now get over here and let me have a look.”

 Alec’s bathroom door squeaked annoyingly when it opened, so Izzy didn’t exactly understand _what_ Alec was grumbling when he came out of his bathroom. But that was probably for the best anyway – she highly doubted it had been something nice.

Granted, Alec had every reason to be annoyed with her. Izzy had been bugging him about what he would wear for his date with Magnus all day. And maybe insulted his preference for plain black clothing a few times along the way.

Nevertheless, Isabelle Lightwood was not someone to be sorry for making outfit recommendations. Not even the slightest bit. _By the angel_ , her brother was going out with the probably best-dressed downworlder in entire New York, it was practically her _duty_ to make sure Alec looked good for that. And if that required dragging her brother out of the Institute and into a shopping mall to get a nice outfit for him, then so be it.

Speaking of her brother, Alec looked pretty uncomfortable and also still a bit grumpy as he was standing in front of her. And he was constantly pulling at the collar of his new sweater. Izzy swatted his hands away and smoothed the fabric down.

“Stop that! You look great!”

“Well I definitely don’t feel like that”, Alec admitted and avoided Izzy’s gaze when she looked up at him.

Izzy’s stern impression immediately turned soft and she pulled her brother into a hug. “Aww, no need to be nervous, big bro. It’s going to be fine.”

Alec sighed and wrapped his arms around his sister. “I hope so.” He looked down at her, looking not too sure of himself. “Do I really have to wear this? Couldn’t I just put on my black –“

Izzy didn’t let him finish the sentence. She just huffed, grabbed Alec’s leather jacket from where it had been laying on his bed, shoved it into his hands and unceremoniously pushed her brother towards the door.  “Alec Lightwood, stop doubting my outfit choices. You may be older, but I certainly have the better taste in fashion. You look great. Now go pick up that warlock before I kick you out the door!”

Alec rolled his eyes, but did as he was told. Arguing with Izzy about fashion-related stuff was pointless anyway.

_

Magnus put on the last bit of hairspray exactly the moment the doorbell rang. He put the can back into the cabinet, shooed Chairman Meow out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him. As he walked over to his front door, he quickly ran his gaze over his living room, removing his forgotten coffee cup and the slightly chaotic pile of magazines from the coffee table with a snap of his fingers. With a deep breath, he opened the door.

“Alexander. Please, come in.”, he said and smiled when he took in Alec’s appearance. Alex wore a dark red sweater that brought out his broad shoulders beautifully. The V-neck collar emphasized his neck and his deflect rune. Also, the sleeves were rolled up, giving Magnus an excellent view of Alec’s arms. To complete the look, the shadowhunter wore his usual black jeans and black boots. “Well aren’t you a sight for my sore eyes”

“Uh…thanks, I guess”, Alec said and then smiled shyly. “Shall we?”

“Sure, let me just grab my jacket”, Magnus said, snapping his fingers again and making a purple jacket appear over his shoulder that suited his black button-down shirt perfectly . “Let’s go. I hope you don’t mind if we use a portal. Traffic in this city has been a nightmare since they invented cars, and I refuse to use this disgusting thing they call public transport system.”

Alec shrugged and then started grinning as he imagined Magnus Bane, high warlock of Brooklyn, on a packed subway train with busy lawyers, crying babies and annoying teenagers. Definitely nothing that fitted together.

He then stepped aside so Magnus could close his apartment door and curiously watched as the warlock drew open a portal and gestured him to walk through.  “Come on, our reservation is in ten minutes.”

_

When Alec had agreed to grabbing dinner at this “lovely French place” Magnus suggested, he had expected some fancy place. Because, honestly, it was Magnus. He would not go for something below the extraordinary if he could avoid it.

What Alec had not been expecting was that “portaling to the restaurant” actually meant portaling to another country.

Needless to say he was pretty surprised when he stepped out of the portal and did not recognize a single building around him. Alec had grown up in New York and been on missions all over the city over the years, so he’d gotten to know his city pretty well. Well enough that he could tell when he was not in New York. Like _right now_.  

“Welcome to Paris”, Magnus said and smiled at Alec’s confused, but curious expression. They were standing in a narrow alley outlined by pretty, old-looking apartment buildings. Although he could hear TV noises and people talking through a few open windows, nobody was on the street. _Good_ , Alec thought. If nobody saw them, nobody could start wondering how exactly the two of them could show up out of nowhere.

Judging from what Alec could see from his point of view, the alley went out onto a much busier street, the sidewalks packed with people and a sheer endless row of parked cars lining up next to the sidewalks. But before Alec could take a closer look, the warlock took his hand and pulled him into the other direction. They walked down the alley, over a bridge and then on a sidewalk along a river until Magnus stopped in front of a small restaurant. Although it was already evening, the sun was still shining, tinting the street and the buildings into a pretty glow and making the surface of the river glisten in the rays of the setting sun.

 Magnus looked up to Alec and chuckled at his stunned expression. Describing the shadowhunter as _impressed_ would be the understatement of the year.  “Beautiful, isn’t it? Not as beautiful as my date, though.”

The downworlder bit back a laugh as Alec immediately started blushing. Instead, he continued talking: “I found this place when I lived in Paris in the early 1920s. And I kind of fell in love with it. Of course, the owners have changed several times since then, but the place remained the same and I love to come here when I’m in town. Although I haven’t been here a lot recently. I missed it.”

“Why didn’t you just come here, then?”, Alec asked curiously. “As far as I know, warlocks can portal anywhere as long as they have already been there, right?”

Magnus smiled. “I’ve been busy, Alexander”, he said, meeting Alec’s gaze.  “Also, there’s this really cute shadowhunter who has been taking up a lot of my spare time recently.”

Magnus’s smile got even bigger when he saw Alec trying to hide his slightly embarrassed but definitely flattered smile.  

_

Alec had never been much of a talkative person when it came to topics that didn’t involve demon hunting. He usually kept his thoughts and opinions to himself, only opening up to a very small circle of people. But talking to Magnus over dinner in this tiny little French restaurant was one of the easiest things he’d ever done.

The conversation kept flowing easily, they never seemed to run out of topics to talk about. And even when there were a few moments of silence Alec enjoyed them more than feeling awkward about. There weren’t many of those silent moments, though – most of the time they were laughing about Alec’s memories of Jace or Izzy (or both of them) getting them into trouble or one of warlock’s stories about London in the 1800s and how he met his dear friend Ragnor there. (“ _Who by the way you have to meet someday, Alexander. He’s a bit much sometimes, but I think you’ll like him.”)_

Talking to Magnus was also fun. And definitely a treat for Alec’s eyes. The longer they kept chatting, Alec realized more and more how attractive Magnus was. Not only in the obvious, visual way – there were a lot of little things Alec had never noticed before that made Magnus so handsome. Like the way his eyes lightened up when he told Alec the story about the time he got almost run over by a carriage in the late 1800s. Or the way his gaze turned soft when he explained why he cared so much about a bunch of downworlders. Or the vivid gestures he used when he told a particularly funny story, making the jewelry around his wrist jingle. And of course, the intense, curious look in his eyes when he listened to Alec talking. That look was probably his favourite one, since it made Alec feel so special, like he was he only person Magnus wanted to be with right now. At this thought, Alec realized he felt just the same way about Magnus. It was a weird feeling, something different than he felt for Izzy and entirely different from his parabatai bond – but he liked it. And it made him smile.

Magnus, who had just been vividly describing how the driver of that damn carriage had yelled at him, “even though it was _his_ fault, and he _knew_ that!”, stopped talking mid-sentence and looked curiously at his date. “What’s wrong?”

One thing Alec really didn’t like about Magnus, though, was the way the warlock’s company often turned him into a stuttering, babbling mess. Just like right now.

“I – uh – nothing, it’s just-”Alec shook his head slightly, pretty embarrassed with himself and then looked back at Magnus. “You just look really good tonight. Actually, not only tonight.”

 Now it was the warlock’s turn to blush. “Why thank you, Alexander. You don’t look too bad yourself, if I may say so.”

_

When they were done with dinner, neither Alec nor Magnus felt like going home, so they opted for taking a walk along the Seine. After a while, Magnus led them over to a bridge and stopped in the middle of it, leaning onto the railing. By now, it was already night and the city had calmed down for the day. They were the only people on the bridge, save for the occasional car or bike passing by.

They stood on the sidewalk next to each other, looking out onto the river and the lights of the city, when Magnus broke the silence. “This used to be one of my favorite places when I lived here. I usually came here when I needed to think. Or just get away from everything”. Immediately after he’d said that, he felt a bit of guilt hitting him along with the reason why exactly he had to this place so often.

Alec did not reply, just kept looking onto the reflections of the street lights on the water. He sensed that something was up, but didn’t want to push Magnus to tell him. So he just kept quiet. If he had learn one thing about Magnus Bane in the few months he’d known him, then that pushing Magnus to do anything would only backfire. So he just waited, trusting that Magnus would come forward with whatever was on his mind. And he was right.

Magnus took a deep breath before he started talking. “Alexander, I haven’t been entirely honest with you earlier. There’s more to why I’ve been avoiding Paris than just me being busy.”

“I figured as much”, Alec answered, looking over to the warlock. “You don’t have to tell me what happened”, he added quickly, after he saw the pained expression on Magnus’s face.

But Magnus quickly shook his head and continued talking. “No, I want to tell you. I want to start this”, he motioned to the small space between him and the shadowhunter, “on honesty, not on secrets. Besides, it’s been decades. This shouldn’t matter to me anymore.”

By now, Alec definitely knew where this conversation was going. And he was pretty sure it had something to do with an annoying, super-bitchy vampire lady. But he didn’t say anything, just took Magnus’s hand in his and kept looking over the river.

Magnus interlocked their fingers and smiled shyly at Alec before he started to explain. “The reason why I haven’t been to Paris is not because I’ve been too busy to come here. I just tried to avoid the city. And a few other ones, to be honest. Paris, Prague, London…all of those are places I have lived together with Camille. But most of the time we spent here, in Paris.”

Magnus paused and tried to ignore the memories that immediately came up in his head. He may have a lot of history with Camille, but when he thought of his future, he thought of Alec. And he did not want to screw this up. So instead of giving in to the memories creeping up on him, he shrugged them off. “Long story short, I have a lot of memories of this city – unfortunately, a lot more bad than good ones. And they tend to come up every time I’m here. So I tried to avoid the city to get rid of them.” Magnus sighed, glancing over to where Alec was still quietly looking out onto the river. “Does that sound weird?”

The shadowhunter shook his head “No, not at all. I guess we all have parts of our past we’re not proud of. You just have to make sure they don’t define you.” Then, Alec smirked. “And about those bad memories – you can’t erase them from your memory. But - ” He stepped closer and put his arms around the warlock’s waist, pulling him against his chest. He put one hand under Magnus’s chin and gently made him look up at him. “But, you know, you could try to overwrite them with good ones.”

Magnus looked into Alec’s soft brown eyes and started smiling. . “Sounds like a plan”, he said and put his arms around the shadowhunter’s shoulders. “And I think I know just the guy who could help me with that.”

And when Alec leaned down for a gentle kiss that made Magnus’s entire body tingle with butterflies, he was pretty sure overwriting those bad memories would be much easier than he’d thought. Especially as he’d just made the first of many good ones.


End file.
